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So, I’m getting into the business end of
editing Stormdancer 3. I feel ridiculous saying “Stormdancer 3”, btw. The book
has a name (some clever people have already figured it out—the clues are there
in KINSLAYER), and though I’m not allowed to reveal the name yet, calling it “Stormdancer
3” feels like referring to my baby sister as “Jay 3”. She has lady parts (I
assume). Calling her Jay is silly. So enough of this. Enough I say!

From the remainder of this post, “Stormdancer
3” will be hereby referred to only as “The Dude”.

So.

True to campfire rumor, The Dude has been
far easier company than KINSLAYER. Second books are all about set up. You can
have conflict, you can have minor resolution, you can have earth shattering
revelations of the Empire Strikes Back variety (No, Darth Vader is not Yukiko’s
father in case you were wondering) but in true man of mystery style, KINSLAYER leaves
the big questions unanswered, and
the big bad guy undefeated.By
comparison, all the pieces are on the board in The Dude, and my job as an
author is to tie up the threads with some suitably crunchy action and
gut-wrenching tragedy and make everybody cry at the end.

Yes, it is The Dude’s intention to make you
cry. He’s mean like that.

I’m also finding The Dude comes with a whole
bunch of battles. And not Michael Jackson filmclip style battles, either, where
hardened street thugs (with inexplicably high pants) work out their differences
with a dance-off. I’m
talking Pelennor
Plains style battles. Cities under siege. Fleets of sky-ships riddling each
other with shuriken-thrower fire, armies clashing on stretches of dead earth
while colossi of black iron and smoke crush legions underfoot and godDAMN it’s
fun to write.

I’m not sure whether it’s because I’m
possessed of XY chromosomes, but I like writing violence. I like building
sand-castles made of words and then smashing them to pieces before the tide
comes in to wash them away. And maybe my epic battles suck more than the Green
Lantern movie (no, wait, suckage that severe would bend the universe…), but
since I’m writing so many of them lately, I thought I’d share a few thoughts on
how I go about writing them, which you can feel free to ignore or adopt as you
see fit.

1.Short introductions - In an epic battle, you’re dealing with thousands of people trying
to murder the bejeezus out of thousands more. The armaments, formation,
disposition, size, mood and personal hygiene standards of your combatants is
something you can spend a lot of time on if you really want to. But I’m not
sure many people care. You need your establishing text to describe the badasses
involved, but spending enormous amounts of time talking about the peculiar braiding
on the elven archers cloaks, or how the pikemen from Southern Whosiwhatsit were
descended from a race of sheep buggering madmen from the Upper Thingamabob… I’m
not sure. Flavor text is good. Flavor text will help establish some color in
the scene. But spend too much time on intros and you’re going to bore your
reader stupid, particularly when they know
most of these fellows are going to be decorating the sharp pointy things of
your main protagonists soon.

2.Keep your wide shots to a
minimum – Think about any showpiece battle you’ve
seen on film – after initial introductions, the camera usually spends very
little time following the movements of large bulks of troops. After we’re shown
that, yes, that is an awful lot of Uruk-hai, and yes, those Riders of Rohan are
proper fracked, the camera takes us up close and personal. It’s only in clutch
points during the battle, when the tide swings one way or the other, that we’re
given a wide view. Most of our time is spent medium/close up. Battles are
visceral. Terrifying. If you find yourself using terms like ‘pincer movement’
or ‘flanking manoeuvre’ you’re shooting way too wide. A guy in the thick of
battle doesn’t know the enemy is performing a ‘pincer movement’. All he knows
is that there’s another guy with a broadsword the size of a small tree trying
to cleave him in twain.

3.Cleave him in twain – NEVER use this turn of phrase in an epic battle. Or in any other
fashion, actually. There is a special circle in Tosser’s Hell for writers who
do.

4.Carnage – People die in battle. And to be honest, they die in brutal,
painful ways. Compare the melee in a film like Braveheart
to a film like the Phantom
Menace. Menace has these huge set-pieces with thousands of figures all pew pew
pewing at each other, all very visually impressive. Braveheart has a couple of
hundred dudes swinging sharpened chunks of metal. The difference? In Menace,
the combatants are robots. In Braveheart, the combatants are big sacks of meat
and blood. When someone gets hit, you feel
it. You see the aftershocks. The camera gets little splashes of blood on it. Which
battles are you more heavily invested in? Which one will you be more excited reading?
Battles are about crunching bones and spraying arteries and people screaming.
They’re about the stink of blood and smoke and excrement (Fun fact! People void
their bowels when they die!). They are noise and chaos and red, red krovy.
PG’ing it isn’t going to work. Nobody will care.

5.Point of View – God’s eye is functional for establishing the ebb and flow – who
is winning and who is losing. But as discussed above, it’s also impersonal.
Epic battles are not about armies. They’re about the people inside them. And not necessarily the heroes leading the
charge atop a disco unicorn, golden locks all blowing in the breeze and
whatnot. Sometimes, sure, you want to see spectacular heroism and feats beyond
the ken of mere mortals. But doing it too often gets boring quick. Try writing
the battle from some grunt on the front line. Lord Richard of Spankersville,
last Scion of the great House of Withknobson wants to win this battle to claim
the throne from the evil clutches of usurper King Tackleout. But Garreth of
Pigswill, some pressganged farmer with a wife and three kids to feed and the
local Magistrate eying off his plot of land? He just wants to stay the hell
alive. Reading from his point of view, rather than the Lord atop his gleaming
unicorn, will give your battles a different kind of gravity. And gravity is
what you’re after.

Lastly, never, EVER use the phrase ‘Cleft
in Twain’ – I know I said this already, but it’s so important I thought I
should mention it twice.

Jay Kristoff is November's Affiliate Blogger. To find out more about our guest author positions here at the League, click here.

A SHATTERED EMPIRE
The mad Shōgun Yoritomo has been assassinated by the Stormdancer Yukiko, and the threat of civil war looms over the Shima Imperium. The Lotus Guild conspires to renew the nation’s broken dynasty and crush the growing rebellion simultaneously – by endorsing a new Shōgun who desires nothing more than to see Yukiko dead.

A DARK LEGACY
Yukiko and the mighty thunder tiger Buruu have been cast in the role of heroes by the Kagé rebellion. But Yukiko herself is blinded by rage over her father’s death, and her ability to hear the thoughts of beasts is swelling beyond her power to control. Along with Buruu, Yukiko’s anchor is Kin, the rebel Guildsman who helped her escape from Yoritomo’s clutches. But Kin has his own secrets, and is haunted by visions of a future he’d rather die than see realized.

A GATHERING STORM
Kagé assassins lurk within the Shōgun’s palace, plotting to end the new dynasty before it begins. A waif from Kigen’s gutters begins a friendship that could undo the entire empire. A new enemy gathers its strength, readying to push the fracturing Shima imperium into a war it cannot hope to survive. And across raging oceans, amongst islands of black glass, Yukiko and Buruu will face foes no katana or talon can defeat.
The ghosts of a blood-stained past.

It’s been almost three years to the day
since I was plucked from the slush and pledged my soul to el Diablo signed
with my literary agent. So in this post, I thought I’d discuss a pit where once
I dwelled, neck deep in danky doom, like some 6’7 piece of bearded navel lint.
Stick with me through the depressing intro – much like asphyxiating on carbon
monoxide, it gets more pleasant towards the end.

Old crusty men will tell you there are only
two certainties in life – death and taxes. But old crusty men tell lies and
smell of vaguely of urinal cake (have you ever noticed that? BIZARRE). Bollocks
to old crusty men. There are actually three absolutes in this rollercoaster we ride.

Rejection is someone you’ll hear rumours
about from your crit-partners, maybe catch a glimpse of in your writing groups,
but you’ll first become intimately acquainted on your quest to find
representation. And when I say ‘intimately’, I’m not kidding. You’ll know where
Rejection’s birthmarks are. You’ll know about that tattoo it got when it was 18
and drunk in Tijuana. You’ll know it’s not a natural blonde.

People will come at you with gems like
“Stephanie Meyer got rejected nine times before Twilight got bought” or “JK
Rowling ate a dozen rejections before she got her deal”. Let Phoenix Wright,
attorney at law, put
all such delusional cracky-talk to rest. I
know writers who’ve swallowed three hundred rejections before they found an
agent. Three hundred. Before they even got a ticket to the dance. Long is the
way, and hard, that out of hell leads up to representation.

Got an agent? Awesome! Achievement
unlocked! Now comes level two: Submissions. Your work gets sent out to
publishing houses – one blind, wriggling little tadpole thing amidst a thousand
others, all struggling together up that long, moist tunnel, vying for…

Nonono, wait. I’m putting a stop to this
analogy right now.

Point is, the odds of getting picked up by
a publishing house are
long. You might get lucky. You
might win the lottery on your first round and not have to dwell in the stinky butt-crack
of Submission Hell for too long. But chances are, this isn’t gonna happen. I
know plenty of writers who’ve gone from the dizzying high of landing an agent
only to watch their book get passed on by every editor it’s sent to. I even
know of an author who got signed, edited, then dumped by her house as her book
was in artwork stages. And to get so close just to watch it slip away? Wedding tackle,
meet steel-toed boot.

Yes, okay, it’s hard. We get it. What’s
your point, Jay?

My point is this: Walking this road is a
slog, and some days, it’s going to seem like it’s too hard and too far away.
You’ll do the math (never do the math – math is your enemy), work out the odds
and wonder why you’re wasting your time. But as you walk this yellow brick road
of rejection slips, you should take a moment to listen. The soft squishing
sound beneath your Chucks? That’s the bodies of the people who walked this road
before you and let it get on top of them.

You don’t want to be them.

As hard as walking is, as long as the odds
are of you getting to the end, the odds are longer if you stop walking entirely.
The probability of you getting to the finish line if you lay down? It’s nil.
And ten thousand to one odds are a damn sight better than an absolute
impossibility.

I went from zero offers of representation
to four in a single week. In the space of two months, I went from a guy with an
inbox full of boilerplate rejection to having three different publishing houses
bidding on my book. Two months. That’s how fast this worm can turn. And it can
start turning tomorrow. But not if you lay down. Not if you stop moving.

So my point?

Keep walking.

Jay Kristoff is November's Affiliate Blogger. To find out more about our guest author positions here at the League, click here.

A SHATTERED EMPIRE
The mad Shōgun Yoritomo has been assassinated by the Stormdancer Yukiko, and the threat of civil war looms over the Shima Imperium. The Lotus Guild conspires to renew the nation’s broken dynasty and crush the growing rebellion simultaneously – by endorsing a new Shōgun who desires nothing more than to see Yukiko dead.

A DARK LEGACY
Yukiko and the mighty thunder tiger Buruu have been cast in the role of heroes by the Kagé rebellion. But Yukiko herself is blinded by rage over her father’s death, and her ability to hear the thoughts of beasts is swelling beyond her power to control. Along with Buruu, Yukiko’s anchor is Kin, the rebel Guildsman who helped her escape from Yoritomo’s clutches. But Kin has his own secrets, and is haunted by visions of a future he’d rather die than see realized.

A GATHERING STORM
Kagé assassins lurk within the Shōgun’s palace, plotting to end the new dynasty before it begins. A waif from Kigen’s gutters begins a friendship that could undo the entire empire. A new enemy gathers its strength, readying to push the fracturing Shima imperium into a war it cannot hope to survive. And across raging oceans, amongst islands of black glass, Yukiko and Buruu will face foes no katana or talon can defeat.
The ghosts of a blood-stained past.

Shocking, I know, but if you look closely, the facial hair is a dead giveaway.

The thing is, the protagonist of my book IS a 16 year-old girl, and having never been a girl, teenaged or otherwise, some might rightly ask “Well, how on earth did you write one convincingly?”

I won’t lie – it’s difficult. But is it any harder than writing a convincing 532 year-old vampire? Or 20-something fighter pilot who blows things up in spaaaace? Or any of the other bazillion things in this world that I’m not and never will be?

Not really, no. The second most successful series of modern times was written by a woman, starring a teenaged male protagonist. Creating well-rounded, believable characters is a challenge for all writers. However, I’ve discovered there are things you can do to help you step outside your chromosomal boundaries. So in the spirit of giving, and in the hopes that you’ll all say “Well, that Jay Kristoff is a lovely man, and his books sound frackin’ awesome”, I present them to you now:

Preparation

Read (duh).

Read books written by authors of the opposite gender, starring protagonists of the opposite gender. See how the home team does it first. Take particular note of the characterization that seems odd to you (see step 5) Note: You might feel odd at the bookstore, particularly if you’re a 30-something male buying books for teenaged girls. Just shrug at the scary clerk looking at you all weird and say the magic words: “They’re for my niece.”

2.Beta powerz…. ACTIVATE.
Get yourself beta readers of the opposite gender. Not the kind that “squeeeee”. I’m talking about the kind who melt paint from the walls with their crits. Arm these betas with a rubber stamp that reads WDTLT (We Don’t Think Like This).
Encourage them to lay that thing down like the frackin’ hammer of Thor.

3.Abandon fear.
You may experience self-doubt when writing outside your gender. But really, unless you’re writing an autobiography, you’re always going to be writing someone different from you.

If people were interested in reading about a guy who is frequently mistaken for Dave Grohl, but in reality, only gets his Rock God on with Guitar Hero 5, yeah, I’m pretty sure I could write that character convincingly. But considering no-one wants to read about that guy, I’ll have to, you know, make stuff up.

Kinda like every fiction writer in the world has been doing since forever. :)Time to Write

4.Familiar
ground.
Start with similarities. Human beings, at their cores, are very similar
regardless of gender. There are things all people want/need. Sure, the way we
go about getting these things might differ, but our motivations don’t: We seek
out happiness. Recoil from things that hurt us. Seek a place to belong.
Friendship. Love. Joy.

5.We
are very different.There are some core differences between males and females (beyond
the obvious), and you need a grasp of these before you begin.

Basic
example:

I read a lot of fiction by female
authors before I started writing my books, and
I was struck by the differences in the way different genders perceive their fellows.

When a girl meets a boy in these
books, they invariably talk about the boy’s eyes. Or his lips. Or his bone structure.

It won’t
surprise many of you, but boys do not think this way. When boy character meets
girl character, he generally notices her hair, then her body. The eyeline (and
thoughts) of the average boy tend to… descend. This is in our nature – if it
wasn’t, every XY on the planet wouldn’t be constantly
caught doing it.

Try it for yourself (No, I don’t mean
ogle other people). Grab five books off your shelf. I’ll bet four of them
follow the above rule. Now this is just one example, but you need to understand
these differences to write a convincing character. If your male protagonist
EVER mentions his love interest’s eyelashes, YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG.

When in doubt, the best advice I can give is seek
the opinions of betas, or writers of the opposite gender you may know. The
brutally honest kind are worth their weight in gold. But whatever you do, never,
ever fall into that baffling belief
that you should only write in your own shoes. Unless you’re a part-time
super-spy or possessed of mutant powers, chances are, a book about you is going to be a boring book. Unless you challenge
yourself, you will never grow.

Be brave. Believe. And above all, WRITE.

Jay Kristoff is November's Affiliate Blogger. To find out more about our guest author positions here at the League, click here.

A SHATTERED EMPIRE
The mad Shōgun Yoritomo has been assassinated by the Stormdancer Yukiko, and the threat of civil war looms over the Shima Imperium. The Lotus Guild conspires to renew the nation’s broken dynasty and crush the growing rebellion simultaneously – by endorsing a new Shōgun who desires nothing more than to see Yukiko dead.

A DARK LEGACY
Yukiko and the mighty thunder tiger Buruu have been cast in the role of heroes by the Kagé rebellion. But Yukiko herself is blinded by rage over her father’s death, and her ability to hear the thoughts of beasts is swelling beyond her power to control. Along with Buruu, Yukiko’s anchor is Kin, the rebel Guildsman who helped her escape from Yoritomo’s clutches. But Kin has his own secrets, and is haunted by visions of a future he’d rather die than see realized.

A GATHERING STORM
Kagé assassins lurk within the Shōgun’s palace, plotting to end the new dynasty before it begins. A waif from Kigen’s gutters begins a friendship that could undo the entire empire. A new enemy gathers its strength, readying to push the fracturing Shima imperium into a war it cannot hope to survive. And across raging oceans, amongst islands of black glass, Yukiko and Buruu will face foes no katana or talon can defeat.
The ghosts of a blood-stained past.

I know, you're probably looking at the title and thinking that there's no way Mindy is the author of this blog post. Mindy, who is so clearly acerbic and a downright instigator when it comes to the demise of the HEA. But, I think this makes me the perfect person to write in defense of insta-love in YA, because you can rest assured that I'm not being reactionary in regards to my own book. (You'll notice that Lynn and Eli don't ever say, "I love you." Why? Because- ick).

So, with that pre-disposition of ick in mind, I can still honestly defend the presence of insta-love in YA. Because even though I'm an old, bitter, cautious woman now, I haven't always been. Yes, Mindy used to fall in love, often and easily, just like the vast majority of teens everywhere... which is who YA is being written for in the first place.

Yes, teens fall in love quickly. And there's plenty of evidence to show that they really can't help it. This article from National Geographic regarding the maturation of the teen brain goes into detail regarding their risk-taking, but the last section focuses on how their changing brains function socially:

The teen brain is similarly attuned to oxytocin, another neural hormone, which (among other things) makes social connections in particular more rewarding. The neural networks and dynamics associated with general reward and social interactions overlap heavily. Engage one, and you often engage the other. Engage them during adolescence, and you light a fire.

Yep, it's true. Love is just better when you're young. Their brains are chemically predisposed to fall in love, and anyone who spends more than the average amount of time around teens can attest to this. They enter into emotionally-drenched connections with someone they truly believe is their soul mate in December, then discover in February that it's actually the girl from English class they're into. And the truth is - they probably are. I don't think it diminishes the weight or value of their love to fall into it so easily and so quickly when they are biologically predisposed to behave in this manner.

What I don't like to see in any genre is insta-love that happens as an excuse for lazy writing, with zero spark between the characters and a simple forced-upon-the-reader: These two are in love now. Fact. Most of the time when I see people complaining about insta-love it's because the writer didn't sell the relationship, not because the relationship shouldn't exist in the first place.

My other beef has nothing to do with insta-love, it's insta-stability. I firmly believe teens do fall in insta-love, but they also fall out just as quickly. It's when I see teens portrayed as meeting their one-and-only and being-blind-to-all-others-for-an-extended-period-of-time-with-no-question-of-the-happiness-that-will-extend-into-eternity that I start to get a bit pissy.

One of the most common pieces of writing advice we often hear as beginners is "Write what you know." But what does that even mean? And is it actually good advice?

If I had taken that suggestion literally, my first novel would have been about a man in his late twenties with a day job as a media coordinator at Lifetime Television who was writing a novel about the action-packed world of file transfers, video conversions, and women's programming. Riveting. Perhaps readers would have been drawn in by the rich cast of characters based on my wacky co-workers, friends, and family--who I'm sure would have been flattered to be included. You see the problem. Worse still, my second novel would have been exactly the same, and my third...

I read fiction for experiences completely different from my own, to see with other people's eyes, so why should writing fiction be any different? I love science fiction and fantasy because in the right hands, an author can make the impossible seem real.

But wait, I write young adult fiction, right? Then I should write about my old high school experiences... if only they hadn't been so dreadfully boring. Of course I do draw on my own memories--especially what it feltlike to be a teenager--but in fiction, I can give myself, and other readers, something better. Something exciting. Something different. Something impossible.

So, how do you go about writing what you don't know? Research! This is one of my favorite parts of the writing process, where I buy and borrow lots of books on interesting new subjects, pass off watching movies and TV shows as "work," and talk to people.

The research is most exciting at the beginning, when I may not have written a single word yet and anything is still possible. I jot down notes and stick little Post-Its in the pages and just soak in all the new knowledge and see what my brain comes up with. I blurt out random, esoteric trivia to the people around me and start having conversations on topics they didn't think I knew anything about. Research can be seductive, because there's so much I don't know, the temptation is to just keep reading to find out just a little bit more. If you never start writing the book, it can remain forever perfect in your head. But when preparation becomes procrastination, it's time to start writing anyway, even though I don't yet know all the things. Especially because I don't know everything. After all, I didn't know how to write my first novel, so I thought I'd see if I could do it, and that turned out pretty well.

I'm researching all while writing that first draft and often through multiple revisions. There are always more books on the subject and related ones, and it fosters wonderful moments of discovery where a fact suddenly fits perfectly with the story--or sparks an entirely new idea. I'm also one of those authors who likes to read fiction related to the book I'm reading. I'm not worried about being subconsciously influenced by other authors, but I'm trying to avoid doing what others have done, or perhaps find a new or better approach. Basically, I like to immerse myself in the world of my characters to give my mind as much creative fodder as possible.

So what have I been reading for my work in progress? In Peggy's recent "What Are We Reading?" post, I was reading Ghost in the Wires, one of several books by the infamos hacker Kevin Mitnick. I've been reading various books and articles about social engineering, whistleblowers, and computer hacking, which led me to the marvelous, award-winning fantasy Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson. I finally read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and Homeland by Cory Doctorow. I spend a lot of time on Wikipedia and Google, and let's just say that I've probably been setting off some red flags with our friends, the NSA. (Hi, guys!) I also may have made some people nervous, like this weekend when I was reading articles about circumventing passwords on Macbooks while sitting in a coffee shop... next to a woman with a Macbook.

The biggest downside to being in full-on research mode is that reading all these books means my to-be-read pile of non-researchy books must wait a little longer--my reading time is finite (as is my time for everything else), and it's important to make sure I'm writing too.

I love being forced to write out of my comfort zone, to write what I don't know, because it makes me grow as an author. I have every intention of challenging myself to make each of my books different from the one before it--and hopefully share something new with readers in the process.

You heard that right. I'm I'm not talking about this kind of flying syringe:

Owww! Did she sign a consent form for that???

I'm talking about this kind:

Source: Wikipedia

Shall we all give a collective "EWWWW"?

We know that mosquitoes are the vector for carrying all sorts of horrible diseases, like malaria, yellow fever, and West Nile virus. If mosquitoes are so good at delivering the bad stuff, why can't they deliver the good stuff? Such as life saving treatments to masses of people, like vaccines?

Before this turns into an ethical discussion of Ginormica proportions, let's appreciate the idea for what it is--an out-of-the-box idea that seems pretty cool, creepy, brilliant, and seemingly impossible at once.

(Also, If it turns out that mass mandatory delivery of treatments are delivered by these little buggers, they'd better make sure those bites don't itch like the devil.)

It's heeerrrreeeee! After only four years, Dr. Matsuoka did it. He boosted the immunity of mice against a fluorescent protein that was transgenically produced in the saliva of mosquitoes. (Is your brain spinning after that sentence? If it isn't, then *fist bump*)

Now, before you freak out and wonder if the powers in Panem are going to strike us all down and turn us into rabid flesh-eating purple wombatsvia flying syringes, remember. This is still WAY far away from human studies and mosquitoes are really, really bad at asking people to sign consent forms. They can't even carry pens! And they enunciate really badly. All they can say is "buzzzzzz."

Here at the League of Extraordinary Writers, we're all getting cozy with some fascinating books! This is what each of the Leaguers are reading right now.

Beth Revis:
I'm currently reading I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by
Malala Yousafzai. I am a huge fan of this young woman, and when I saw
her speak on Jon Stewart, I knew I needed this book. It's been
fascinating so far; I have a lot to learn about her culture.

I'm reading One Summer: 1927 by Bill Bryson, a wry and detailed history
of an American summer in the Roaring Twenties. Bryson is so witty and
so smart that I have fantasies about adopting him as my great-uncle or
something--needless to say, I read all of his books.

E.C. Myers:
I'm reading Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker
by Kevin Mitnick with William L. Simon. I'm researching a new novel
(it's for a story, really!), and I had to pick this one up after
enjoying and learning a lot from Mitnick's terrific book The Art of Intrusion. Reading about computer hacking and social engineering has opened my eyes to all the security weaknesses around us every day.

Meagan Spooner:
I'm currently reading The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man
by David W. Maurer, a non-fiction work sharing stories and techniques
from real life con-men in the 1930s and 40s. I'm reading it to research
the subject for an upcoming novel, but I'd cheerfully read this book
even without needing it for research... it's fascinating!

I'm currently listening to the audiobook of Cooked: A Natural History of
Transformation by Michael Pollan. Pollan divides the book into cooking
with fire, water, air and earth and tells stories about how he
apprenticed with various expert cooks. I can't listen to fiction
audiobooks because my mind wanders and I lose the story, but I'm finding
nonfiction is my sweet spot and Pollan is entertaining and inspiring.

As for me, I'm reading Champion by Marie Lu, because my son told me to. He read Legend and Prodigy without me, declared them his favorite books of all time, and begged me to hurry and read them so we could both read Champion when it came out and chat about it. Who could turn down that offer? Especially when the books are as incredible as these.

You may not know this about me, but I rarely get to enjoy any part of autumn. I have vicious seasonal allergies that turn my eyes into bloody, oozing, swollen slits and I generally can't breathe except for really noisily through my mouth. So naturally, when everybody's skipping around, exclaiming over cider donuts and artisanal squash, I am generally uninterested. I have my own private world of pain to inhabit, and I don't need any cider donuts there, just Allegra and Benadryl, thanks.

But this year I managed to outlast the ragweed somehow, and when I came to in mid-October I realized something--I would get to see the fall! And the thing about fall is that it's the perfect time to experience atmosphere. Leaves blushing into bright red and orange, fog creeping between the trees, the sounds of dead leaves skittering on the sidewalk--for about three weeks now, I've been walking around in awe, like have you seen this? It's SO COOL! And then everybody is like, yes, we know.
This fall has made me aware of how in love with atmosphere I am and how it impacts my writing. Atmosphere is the mood or feeling evoked by the setting and dialogue and themes, although when I'm gestating a new WIP, the atmosphere comes first for me, before anything else. I know whether I want a world to feel lovely or haunted and gritty and then everything else starts falling into place. What kind of world would give the impression of being haunted? What kind of characters would live in that world? How would this characters interact with it?

For some writers, the character comes first or the world or the story, but for me, every time, it's the mood. The feeling I want to leave a reader with.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “But there are
so many good adult and kid books out there,” and if you know me really well,
you’re thinking, “But you often list adult books as your favorites.” Both of
these thoughts are true. I love books of all kinds. Books about aliens. Books
about dystopian societies. Books with animals as characters. Books with
paranormal creatures. Books with romance. So, you see, I am somewhat of a book
fanatic, but I think YA books are special. Even specialer than all the other
good books out there and I’ll tell you why.

#1-YA BOOKS HAVE NO BOUNDARIES

YA books have no boundaries. Well, of course they have
boundaries as far as keeping it kid friendly, but there aren’t any limits to
the ideas an author might have. YA is the one category that doesn’t box an
author in. If I want to write science fiction, I can write it. If I want to
write about knights in shining armor, I can write it. If I want to write about
angels and demons, that’s good too. Which brings me to another point.

#2-YA FANS ARE OPEN-MINDED

The fans of YA will typically follow an author on whatever
journey they want to take. Teens and fans of YA are the types of readers that
have open minds and soft hearts. If I want to mix world mythologies, they are
fine with that. If I want my horses to talk? Why not? If I want to write about
a dystopian world where cupcakes rule? Even better.

This rare quality doesn’t appear to cross over to other
genres. Hard core romance fans will rarely follow an author into fantasy or
science fiction. Sci-Fi fanatics probably aren’t willing to venture over into
mystery. This is one reason I think YA is special.

#3-IT TAKES A SPECIAL KIND OF

AUTHOR TO WRITE FOR TEENS

Then there’s the fact that I’ve actually worked in schools.
In fact, several YA authors I’ve met have either been teachers at one time or
were studying to become one in college when they began writing. I have always
believed that it takes a special kind of person to work with kids of any age
but especially those in middle and high school. Those formative years have
lasting impact on character and I remember several of my teachers fondly.

My love of reading and passion for writing was nurtured and
encouraged by a few exceptional souls and I can honestly say that I wouldn’t be
the person I am today without them. The YA authors I’ve met and collaborated
with are just as extraordinary. They have a singular understanding of what it
means to be a young adult. The problems they identify and the situations they
describe go above and beyond finding love, solving a mystery, or running from
aliens.

This leads me to the fourth reason why YA books are better
than everything else. So just to recap, the first reason was the very large
canvas we YA writers have on which to stretch the limits of our imaginations.
Second, our fans are just freaking awesome. Third, YA writers are interesting,
empathetic, and have a unique perspective on young people, and now the fourth
reason.

#4-YA CHARACTERS ARE UNIQUE

YA characters haven’t even settled into who they are going
to be as adults. The whole world is open to them and anything could happen.
Yes, they could be destined to solve world hunger, or lead an army against a
terrible enemy, or have to overcome a debilitating disease, but at the core of
the story, and the thing all YA books have in common, is that our heroes and
heroines are seeking their identity—that spark of uniqueness that will set them
apart from everyone else. And sometimes not even the
author knows how the circumstances of the story will impact that character and
influence who they will become.

This feature is what makes YA books utterly different from
everything else. Don’t get me wrong. I love books of all types—characters of
all types—but there is a spark found in YA books that makes me love them above
all else. They fill my shelves. They inspire my dreams. And they stay in my
heart long after I’ve closed the last page.

Colleen Houck is October's Affiliate Blogger. To find out more about our guest author positions here at the League, click here.

Colleen Houck’s New York Times bestselling Tiger’s Curse series has received national praise with the fourth book, Tiger’s Destiny, debuting September 2012. Colleen is a lifelong reader whose literary interests include action, adventure, science fiction, and romance. Formerly a student at the University of Arizona, she has worked as a nationally certified American Sign Language interpreter for seventeen years. Colleen lives in Salem, Oregon, with her husband and a huge assortment of plush tigers.

The last thing Kelsey Hayes thought she’d be doing this summer was trying to break a 300-year-old Indian curse. With a mysterious white tiger named Ren. Halfway around the world. But that’s exactly what happened. Face-to-face with dark forces, spellbinding magic, and mystical worlds where nothing is what it seems, Kelsey risks everything to piece together an ancient prophecy that could break the curse forever.

Tiger’s Curse is the exciting first volume in an epic fantasy-romance that will leave you breathless and yearning for more.